Improvement in water-wheels



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Letters' =Patent No. 99,374, dated February 1, 1870.

IMPRovEMENT IN WATER-WHEELS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, B. W.- TUTTLE, of Galena, in the county of Jo Daviess, and State of Illinois, have invented a' new and improved Water -Wheel; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, andexact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specilication, in which- Figures l and 2 are sectional elevations, and

Figures 3 and 4 are horizontal sections through the lines :c y respectively, the former, as seen, looking down upon it, andthe latter looking up under it.

This invention relates to the class of turbine wheels acting 0n the principle of Barkers mill, and consists in a new and improved construction, which enables the buckets to be enlarged or contracted, at pleasure, according to the amount of available water, or the speed required; to this end,

The invention consists of three principal parts, viz:

First, the body of the wheel; secondly, the vertically-sliding gate and bucket-adjusting device; and thirdly, the annular chamber at the bottom of the wheel; saidv parts being all constructed'and arranged to operate/in connection with each other, as hereinafter set forth.

In the drawingsa 'a1 a2 represent the body of the wheel; a being a horizontal annular plate; al, a circular disk, under and parallel to the plate a.; and a2 a2, a series of ver- -tical walls', connecting the plates c al, and each being a kind of convolute segment, arranged as shown 'clearlyT in gs. 3 and 4.

The water, fed from above into the central opening of ling a, meets the bottom plate al, and is deflected to all sides, where it forces its way olt through the wall a a, between the several segments composing that wall, and by its reaction against such, segments, turns the wheel, the openings between the segments constituting the buckets.

The object to be attained is, to enable the operator to enlarge or diminish these openings or buckets at pleasure, during the running of the wheel. Thisobjectl is attained by the employment of a verticallymovable device, b bl b2, combining in itself the functions of a gate and a bucket-adjuster., Of this device, the part bis a circular horizontal plate, interposed between the plates a al, and having slots to accommodate the segments ai. This plate is capable of being adjusted at any point between the plates a al, by means described in a recent application led by me for Letters Patent on an improvement in water-wheels, and therefore needing no further description here.

The parts b1 b1 are segments of a vertical ring, at-

tached to the outer edge of plate b, and working up and down with it, they fitting into recesses in the perimeter of plate al, as shown in lig. 3, so as to slide always in actual contact with such perimeter, thereby guiding the movement of plate b, and keeping it perfectly horizontal.

The third part, b, is a radial plate, (there is a series of them, as shown by the drawings,) attached, at its upper end, to the plate b, and extending directly' across each opening or bucket, as sho'wn in figs. 1, il, and 4.

The plates b b1 b3 being connected together, ally are raised or lowered alike, and the size of the buckets or water-passages between segments a2 a2 isjthns adjustable at pleasure.

Instead of making the part b b b2 movable, it might be stationary, and 'the part a a a made movable, by which precisely the same effect/would be attained, it only being necessary that the parts should move with relation to each other, so as to open or .close ,the buckets, as described.

In connection with these parts is an annular airchamber or supporting-ring, c ci c2 c", consisting of two concentric rings c c, connected by partitions c2 c2, and provided with a floor, c, and arranged beneath the other parts,as fully shown in figs. 1, 2, and 4. This not only furnishes an air-space under the other parts of the wheel, for the purposes adverted to in my former application, to which'reference has already been made herein, but, at the same time, provides a suita# ble chamber to accommodate the gates b2 bZ and circular segment-walls b1 b1, when the bucket-adjusting apparatus is lowered. The necessity for such a chamber will fully appear by reference to figs. l and 2, the former of which represents the parts bl b2 as lowered into the air-chambers, the latter representing said parts as raised above the air-chambers.

The three main parts of my improved wheel may be hereafter designated by the letters A B C respectively; A including the parts represented by a al a2, B including the parts b b1 b2, and O including thepartsr c c c5 c3.

It is evident that the vert-ical position of these three v parts might be reversed, the part C cominguppermost, and the part A nethermo, if preferred. There would be someadvantage in suc arrangement, in the fact that the chambers formed in part U would not be so likely to lill up with sand and gravel.

It is not indispensable that the chambers in part C should be air-chambers. On the contrary, the water may be admitted to them to any extent desired, and they may be provided with suitable openings to let it escape.

The whole wheel, as thus constructed, rotates on or with a shaft, S, of any preferred construction.

The annular ring, into which the gates slide, may,

' a water-wheel; but

What I do claim, as my invention, is- 1. The combination of the wheel al al a,2 with the gate and bucket-adjuster b b1 b2, when the parts are constructed and arranged substantially as and for the purpose described. f

2. The combination of the Wheel a a1 a.2 `With the gate and bucket-adjuster b bl b and annular support ing-ring c c1 cz c, when tbe parts are constructed and arranged as and for the object'specied.

B. W. TUTTLE.

Witnesses:

T. F. MGNULTY, R. S. N oRBIs. 

